Egong-gong: an original and natural cosmetic workshop

Would you believe that you can
get your diffuser, mist, lip balm,
and other cosmetics that are made
at Ewha’s engineering laboratory?
These engineering students, also
known as Egong-gong, make their
own natural cosmetic products in
the university lab.
“We would like to say it’s our
own natural cosmetics workshop,”
said Kang Seo-hee and Hong Haeji,
both members of the club and
juniors in the Division of Chemical
Engineering and Materials Science.
Egong-gong, founded in 2017,
is Ewha’s natural cosmetic
manufacturing club, which is
funded by Center for Innovation in
Engineering Education. The club
started as a team project for an
engineering major course, where
they had to design fine dust block
products. While working on the
project, Son Jin-a, the current
president of Egong-gong, came
to think of making more makeup
products, including fine dust block
products, and aiming to gradually
expand the categories of cosmetics
that could be manufactured beyond
their team project.
“I came across the idea because I
thought it would be great to have a
club where members deal with the
whole manufacturing process with
their own hands,” Son said.
There are currently 13 students in
the club, all studying in the Division
of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science and Mechanical
and Biomedical Engineering. Most
of the students have experience
in making cosmetic products, and
many are also interested in working
at cosmet ics manufactur ing
industry.
Egong-gong manufactures various
natural cosmetic products including
rose argan mists, diffusers, and mint
lip balms. They highly value the
natural aspect of cosmetics because
they are aware of the dangers of
chemical products, often hazardous
to the environment. The members
always use their own beakers to
prevent accidents that may occur
when the chemical residues left by
previous experiments react with
their cosmetics ingredients.
Kang and Hong shared that
making these kinds of cosmetic
products is the best part of Egonggong,
alongside selling and
designing.
“At first, we were amazed by the
fact that manufacturing cosmetics
is not that hard; products that we
use in our daily lives are quite
easy to make,” they said. “Making
cosmetics based on the ingredients
that I get to choose was also
thrilling.”
Egong-gong can be seen in one
of the booths during the school
festivals. They sold their handmade
cosmetics at their booth during
the Daedong Festival in May. The
club also sold their products at the
Meondong festival, a festival for
students in the ELTEC College
of Engineering. Egong-gong was
especially grateful to the students
who have shown interest towards
their products.
“We were really worried about
our booth. Daedong Festival is
mainly about food stalls, so we
did not think many students would
come,” they said. “But so many
positive comments about our
products were posted on the online
school community board, and our
products were quickly sold out,
much to our surprise.”
Egong-gong aims to broaden
the opportunity to make a variety
of cosmetic lines depending on
specific skin types and ages. The
club also wishes to sell their own
products at flea markets outside of
school soon.